Emmy Award

An Emmy Award, or simply Emmy, recognizes excellence in the television industry, and corresponds to the Academy Award (for film), the Tony Award (for theatre), and the Grammy Award (for music).

Because Emmy Awards are given in various sectors of the American television industry, they are presented in different annual ceremonies held throughout the year. The two events that receive the most media coverage are the Primetime Emmys and the Daytime Emmys, which recognize outstanding work in American primetime and daytime entertainment programming, respectively. Other notable Emmy Award ceremonies are those honoring national sports programming, national news and documentary shows, national business and financial reporting, and technological and engineering achievements in television, including the Primetime Engineering Emmy Awards. Regional Emmy Awards are also presented throughout the country at various times through the year, recognizing excellence in local and statewide television. In addition, International Emmys are awarded for excellence in TV programming produced and initially aired outside the United States.

Primetime Emmy Award

The Primetime Emmy Award is an American accolade bestowed by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in recognition of excellence in American primetime television programming. First given in 1949, the award was originally referred to as simply the "Emmy Awards" until the first Daytime Emmy Award ceremonies were held in the 1970s, and the word "prime time" was added to distinguish between the two.

The Primetime Emmy Awards generally air in mid-September, on the Sunday before the official start of the fall television season. They are currently seen in rotation among the four major networks (ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC). Because of NBC’s coverage of Sunday Night NFL Football beginning in September, when NBC has had the rotation in 2006, 2010 and 2014, the Primetime Emmy Awards moved to late August for those years only.

The Emmy Awards are considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards (for film), Grammy Awards (for music), and Tony Awards (for stage). The awards are divided into three categories: the Primetime Emmy Awards for television performance, the Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards, and the Primetime Engineering Emmy Awards.

Drama (genre)

In the context of film and radio, drama describes a genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone, focusing on in-depth development of realistic characters who must deal with realistic emotional struggles. A drama is commonly considered the opposite of a comedy, but may also be considered separate from other works of some broad genre, such as a fantasy. To distinguish drama as a genre of fiction from the use of the same word to mean the general storytelling mode of live performance, the word drama is often included as part of a phrase to specify its meaning. For instance, in the sense of a television genre, more common specific terms are a drama show, drama series, or television drama in the United States; dramatic programming in the United Kingdom; or teledrama in Sri Lanka. In the sense of a film genre, the common term is a drama film.

Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, child abuse, coming of age, drug addiction, emotion, hope, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, sexuality, poverty, class divisions, violence against women and corruption put characters in conflict with themselves, others, society, or even natural phenomena. Drama is one of the broadest movie genres and includes subgenres such as romantic drama, war films, sport films, period drama, courtroom drama and crime.

Daytime Emmy Award

The Daytime Emmy Award is an American accolade bestowed by the New York–based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in recognition of excellence in American daytime television programming. Ceremonies generally are held in May or June.

Emmys are considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards (for film), Grammy Awards (for music) and Tony Awards (for theatre).

History

The first daytime-themed Emmy Awards were given out at the primetime ceremony in 1972, when The Doctors and General Hospital were nominated for Outstanding Achievement in a Daytime Drama. That year, The Doctors won the first Best Show Daytime Emmy. In addition, the award for Outstanding Achievement by an Individual in a Daytime Drama was given to Mary Fickett from All My Children. A previous category "Outstanding Achievement in Daytime Programming" was added once in 1968 with individuals like Days of Our Lives star MacDonald Carey nominated. Due to voting rules of the time, judges could opt to either award one or no Emmy, and in the end they decided that no one nominated was deserving of the golden statuette. This snub outraged then-Another World writer Agnes Nixon, causing her to write in The New York Times, "...after viewing the recent fiasco of the Emmy awards, it may well be considered a mark of distinction to have been ignored by this group."